Ludhiana: A driver dragged a 53-year-old woman on his bonnet before running her over in a hit-and-run at Model Town Extension, while police allegedly delayed filing charges despite clear CCTV evidence.At 6.15am on Friday , a speeding compact sedan struck two women during their morning walk from Baba Deep Singh Gurudwara Chowk to Krishna Mandir, the scene of this incident.One of them, Harpreet Kaur, was thrown onto the bonnet, but instead of stopping, the motorist accelerated, dragging her for several metres, and crushing her to death as she fell beneath the wheels.Harpreet Kaur’s companion, Meetu, 50, survived the initial impact and is under treatment at a local private hospital. Passersby moved both women to the facility, Harpreet Kaur couldn’t make it there alive.The role of local police is said to have compounded the incident’s brutality. Despite the family’s retrieving the vehicle’s registration number and identifying the suspect’s neighborhood through private security footage, the cops allegedly delayed registering the case.“My mother would have survived if the driver had stopped when she was on the bonnet,” said Harpreet Kaur’s son, Mandeep Singh, who condemned the bureaucratic inertia. “By noon, I filed a formal complaint with the suspect’s details, yet by 3pm, no case was registered. We had to agitate just to get the FIR lodged.”The grieving family has issued a 24-hour ultimatum to the Ludhiana police to apprehend the driver, threatening widespread public demonstrations if the deadline is missed.Model Town’s station house officer (SHO), inspector Gurshinder Kaur, claimed that cops had raided the vehicle owner’s house, which Harpreet’s family claimed was in Haibowal.Assistant commissioner of police Sarabjit Singh defended the investigation’s timeline, noting that the formal case was registered immediately following the victim’s autopsy, and said an arrest was imminent.Harpreet Kaur leaves behind her husband, a local real-estate businessman and garment merchant, a son, and a daughter who got married about a year ago.
